The Feminist Revolution

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About this Exhibit

In the second half of the 20th century, feminism transformed both American life and the Jewish community. And so, with urgency—as the historical actors of this movement age, clean out their attics, or even pass away—the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) set out to preserve the story of Jewish women and the feminist revolution.

For phase one of this ambitious project, JWA envisioned an exhibit that would combine two powerful narratives: the story of Jewish women's influential role in shaping American feminism, and the impact of feminism on the Jewish community. Rather than create our own synthetic history of Jewish women and feminism, we chose to design an exhibit in which the agents of historical change—the activists themselves—would tell the story and contribute the majority of the resources.

With the help of advisors and experts in the field, we invited Jewish feminist activists to contribute historically significant objects from their personal collections, along with short statements about the objects' significance. In selecting the featured women, we sought diversity in geography, professional role, ethnicity, denominational affiliation, and sexual orientation.

The exhibit is not encyclopedic, nor was it intended to be. Rather, we aimed to create an exhibit that is illustrative of the diversity and richness of Jewish women's feminist activism; an exhibit that is infused with the personalities of the activists and their sense of feminism's ongoing meaning; an exhibit that suggests the power—and challenges—of collective action.

We will not be adding material to this exhibit, but the larger project on Jewish women and the feminist revolution continues to grow. Coming next: JWA will begin online collecting, in which individuals will be able to upload images, documents, and stories to our virtual archive. We will also develop educational resources based on this exhibit for use in classrooms and informal educational settings.